


the seasons alter

by greywardenblue



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Gen, Toby amounts of blood, also some stabbing but not very graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 01:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20322913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: A bonding experience between August, Toby and their (least) favourite aunt.





	the seasons alter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zahri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zahri/gifts).

> The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts  
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose  
\- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
> 
> [Credit for the idea in the second part of the story goes to Zahri, and I can't wait to see what she'll do with this concept in her own work!]

“I admit, you two gave me more trouble than I expected. Especially from you, August.” Eira caressed the woman’s frozen face with false gentleness before she turned to October. “But it wasn’t enough, of course.”

Toby tried to move, even though every movement felt like a thousand knives were stabbing into her body at the same time. She was bleeding from a thousand cuts, and she faintly remembered her fight with Blind Michael.

The first Firstborn she had killed.

It was probably still better than the ice sculpture situation August had going on.

“You cannot hurt me,” she said. She tasted blood in her mouth, but that was fine, that was  _ comforting _ . As long as she had the blood, she had power. As long as she had the blood, she had a fighting chance.

Eira shook her head. “No, I cannot hurt you,” she agreed. “But why would I? You, my favourite, my bravest, my most perfect niece?” She walked slowly, and Toby could feel her words wash over herself, stronger with every step of lost distance. “Don’t you remember I was always there for you? I held you when you were a baby, and I held you when you came out of the pond. You cried in my arms, and I soothed you.”

Toby wanted to speak, she wanted to say that was bullshit, it was Eira’s fault she was in the pond in the first place - but her tongue would not move. Her right hand clutched around the iron knife was trembling, and she slowly brought it closer to her own chest.

“I was always there for you,” Eira repeated. “So surely, you can do me one tiny, tiny favour, don’t you think?”

“Sorry, can’t die,” Toby forced out. “Who would feed the cats?”

Eira made a face. “I’m sure that beast you keep in your bed will take care of them for you. Really, have you no manners? Don’t you see everything would be so much easier if you weren’t in the picture?” The soothing tone of her voice never wavered, even as she was almost on top of October now. “Look at your mother, for example. Where is she now?”

Toby held the knife at a perfect angle to stab it into her own heart. The iron was already burning her skin from the closeness.

“She’s not here,” she whispered. “My mother is not here.”

“She’s not here,” Eira repeated. “I knew my sister didn’t care about her duties, but one would have thought she’d at least show up to rescue her daughters.”

Toby steadied her trembling hand. “Yes… her daughters.”

There must have been something in her tone, or maybe Eira heard something else. Her eyes went wide and she spun around, so instead of the back, the silver knife entered her heart from the front.

Toby moved immediately, stabbing the iron knife into Eira’s back just as August stabbed the silver one even deeper.

“That one’s for my Papa, you bitch,” August said in a shaking voice.

Or at least, she said something similar. Toby had trouble concentrating at the overwhelming pain that flooded her even as Eira screamed. The world went blurry with dark spots floating in front of her, and she could feel her knees giving out.

“Toby?” 

She crashed to the ground, letting go of the knife, and she felt August’s hand on her, her long blond her tickling Toby’s face.

“Toby? What are you doing? Answer me, dammit!”

The last thing she saw was August being yanked back by two pale hands, then the world went completely black.

\--

She was lying on a hard floor, unable to do anything but tremble in a fetal position, and the pain would not go away. She cried for Tybalt, she cried for August, she cried for the Luidaeg. As the pain passed, she thought she felt a furry paw touch her face. “Tybalt?” She opened her eyes. “Oh. Lacey.”

When she sat up, for a moment she didn’t recognise her surroundings. Then she swore.

“August? August!”

The only answer was Lacey’s questioning meow. Toby reached for her hair and tried her best to pull it into her field of vision, then got up and rushed to the bathroom mirror.

Dark brown hair and barely pointed ears. The bathroom mirror in the flat she hadn’t lived in for years. Toby swallowed, and walked slowly back to where she woke up.

She pressed ‘replay message’ on the voicemail and listened in numb silence. Then she replayed it one more time, paying specific attention to the wording.

“You bitch,” she whispered. She shook herself in disgust. “Well, I’m sure as hell not drinking your blood this time.”

She walked to the door, one hand reaching for her jacket, the other reaching for her iron knife.

“May, Jazz, I’m--”

Her hands touched air where Tybalt’s jacket and Dare’s knife should have been. Toby paused and stood in the silent apartment for at least a full minute before she moved again.

“Right,” she whispered. “Right.”

She looked for something else to put on, then stopped and stared at her cats. “How many treats do I have to bribe you with for you to sneak into Court and steal Tybalt’s jacket for me?” There was no response. Toby sighed.

The Luidaeg, she thought absently as she closed the door behind herself. She wouldn’t need a rose goblin to find the way this time, but she’d pick one up later anyway.


End file.
